By Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti
08/29/06

Struggles and Strategies

Staffing Challenges For The Therapy Professional

Staffing is a continual struggle in the healthcare arena. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, healthcare was the largest industry in the country in 2004, boasting 13.1 million jobs for wage and salary workers (with over 400,000 more for the self-employed).

More new wage and salary jobs will be created in healthcare in the decade leading up to 2014 than in any other industry. Yet, according to an article by the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT), one in five healthcare employees changes jobs annually, greater than the 12 to 15 percent turnover rate for other industries.

Finding a job – or a new hire – is one thing, but finding the right fit is quite another. And it is finding this fit, whether through staffing through a healthcare organization’s own hiring department or through an agency, that will create the best relationship between therapist and employer.

JeMe Cioppa-Mosca, PT, assistant vice president of the rehabilitation department for the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, is one of the lucky ones. Her institution is the oldest orthopedic hospital in the country, and it attracts a wide range of therapists interested in orthopedics. “We never have a shortage of resumes,” she says.

However, the hospital’s intense screening process, in which potential hires spend at least a half-day in the environment meeting with staff from various sections, doesn’t always yield a perfect fit. “We view this as a marriage,” Cioppa-Mosca says, noting that “it is frustrating when you can’t find a fit.” And finding this elusive fit is the goal of every healthcare institution and every therapist who seeks employment as a direct hire or through a staffing agency.

Agency vs. Corporate?

One of the most obvious questions for healthcare institution and therapist alike is whether to sign on with a staffing agency or look to a corporate hiring department to handle staffing. For Kelly Neal, corporate director of recruitment for HealthBridge Management Inc., in Concord, Mass., the answer is simple: the corporate option provides the security and career development potential that no agency can.

“The most important questions are security versus a higher pay rate hourly,” Neal says, referencing the fact that agencies can typically offer a higher pay rate in exchange for a less robust benefits package and less job security. She cautions therapists not to be swayed by the lure of the higher initial paycheck. “Do what makes you happy and you’ll be successful, and the money will follow.”

In addition to a better benefits package, hiring through the healthcare institution itself can bring many opportunities for professional development that come with working in a stable environment with the same coworkers day to day. “We learn more when we have relationships with people who will mentor us,” she says, referencing her institution’s mentoring program for in-house nurses. She also believes that the quality of care for patients is better when consistent faces are on the job instead of a rotating crew from an agency.

Finally, she reminds therapists that moving from job site to job site may impact future searches for permanent positions, as the therapist may not have established a track record in a situation from which people will remember them. “Not many nurses or therapists want to stay with an agency or traveling forever,” says Neal. “[With rotating agency placements,] you have little reference depth.”

Many therapists do elect to work through staffing agencies at some point in their careers, with some looking to larger staffing agencies for the wide range of job opportunities, medical benefits and some ancillary benefits like paid time off and continuing education assistance and programs. However, Neeraj “Telly” Telhan, principal for Critical Connection in Bethesda, Md., is quick to point out some of the benefits of signing on with a staffing agency, especially a small and nimble one like his own. Chief among the benefits of such an agency is the personalized attention to the needs and career path of each therapist.

“We can focus on what the candidate wants,” says Telhan. “We present opportunities that fit their [the therapist’s] criteria. We take the time to learn who they are and what they are looking for,” he says, noting he has spent as much as an hour on the phone getting to know a therapist.

Critical Connection sends a representative to visit each prospective facility in which it may place a therapist, and it asks therapists who have worked there for their impressions. In that way, the agency ensures that the candidate knows about the clinical environment and even the unique personality of the institution before ever accepting a placement. He recommends that therapists searching for an agency be sure that the one they choose provides this sort of information, including name, location, description of the clinical environment and even number of clinicians on staff. And he also encourages therapists not to shy away from a smaller agency. "We have just as big a reach as larger companies, but we focus on the therapist,” says Telhan.

Hitting the Road

Just because you have chosen one of the therapy professions as your life’s work, doesn’t mean that you need give up any dreams of traveling the world. For some therapists, signing on with a staffing agency as a traveler is the way to go. This is true for Gina Rooney, a traveling physical therapist with Destination Healthcare Staffing, a CHG Healthcare Services Company (Salt Lake City). She elected to leave a permanent position to fulfill her desires to travel in the Southwest.

"I could have had a job there [with my previous employer] until I die, but I needed a change. I’m single, with no attachments, and I don’t know where I want to settle,” Rooney says. She decided to become licensed in the states that she would like to explore, and she began taking 13-week assignments that allowed her to experience different types of therapeutic situations. Destination Healthcare Staffing helps to ease her transition into each new environment, providing information and contact information for other traveling therapists in her new area, and guaranteeing her at least 13 weeks of work with her new employer or another in the area during her stay.

Rooney recommends that therapists allow themselves to mature in their profession before taking on the traveling life. “Some [therapists] did traveling right out of college; I recommend waiting a year or two out of college to refine your skills and become comfortable with yourself as a therapist,” she says.

She also recommends that a therapist investigate an agency that places traveling therapists in the same way one would look at agencies placing more permanent positions. She contacted former classmates who had already signed on with her agency to find out more about the life of a traveler, and she looked at the benefits the agency provided. Chief among her concerns was finding one with adequate medical benefits.

In addition, Rooney dedicated a significant amount of time to speaking with an agency representative, who was able to answer all of her questions and help her feel comfortable with her decision. “I spent hours talking with a recruiter, asking questions. I felt really comfortable with who I spoke with,” she says.

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